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68 THE PROCESS OF REDUCTION.
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in
favour of those processes and systems of machinery which have been
found to succeed best in the locality where they have operated.
Now,
India is an entirely new field, and it is, therefore, still a matter of
great uncertainty which of the various systems recommended will be
found the best for adoption in it.
As
with all new industries, so it has been with gold reduction—the
establishment of important gold-mining companies within the past two
years has attracted the attention of manufacturing engineers in this
country, and new patents are continually being pressed on the notice of
directors. These offer alleged improvements in stone crushing, in
stamping, in concentrating, which look promising enough on paper, but
are hitherto untried, and may only manifest their defects when brought
to the test of actual practice.
The
old Australian gravitation batteries have been in operation for many
years, and are known to have answered satisfactorily, but they are
immensely heavy and very costly.
The
new elephant stamps are highly recommended in some quarters. As yet,
however, these latter must still be considered on their trial. Some of
the new Indian companies have adopted them, and we may hope soon to
hear about their capabilities. They have some manifest advantages over
the gravitation stamps. Being much lighter, they are
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